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U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJune 26, 2015Jeff MaggertSACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA THE MODERATOR: It's my pleasure to welcome Jeff Maggert into the Media Center. Jeff, rounds of 70 and 65. 5 under par, 135, currently tied for first place with Peter Fowler. Jeff, today you started on 10. Then you were 2 over through 23 holes, and then you went on a little bit of a tear. Could you take us through starting on 15? JEFF MAGGERT: I could definitely say I was in a bad attitude at that moment of my round and the tournament. I played pretty well yesterday and was looking forward to getting off to a good start this morning with the cooler weather, and two early bogeys. Then I just turned it around with the putter. 15, 16, 17, 18, making birdie on those four holes is pretty good on this golf course, obviously, especially 16, 17, 18. Then made another birdie on No. 1. So in the stretch of about an hour, I went from having a pretty bad attitude to a really good attitude. I just kind of gutted it out after that. I haven't been hitting a lot of fairways, which is kind of unusual for my game. At least today I was missing a few. Had a nice chip-in on the par 3 there, No. 5, and that kind of kept my round going. And drove it in the rough on 6 and was able to get it on the green and two-putt from about 100 feet, it looked like. But drove it in the rough again on 7 and left it short of the green and made a nice up and down there. 18, drove it in the rough, but I had a pretty decent lie over there and got it on the green about 15 feet and made that putt. So definitely putting and chipping kind of held my round together today. Looking forward to driving the ball a little bit better on the weekend. That's kind of my strong point of my game. The greens here are fantastic. They've been rolling good. So I feel like, if I can drive the ball kind of the way I'm used to, feel like I'm going to have a pretty good weekend. THE MODERATOR: Just eight fairways today, 11 greens, but 24 putts. That's the best. It seems like you really had the putter working. This setup, the U.S. Open-type setup, you're no stranger to that. Seven top tens in the U.S. Open and now here in the U.S. Senior Open. Is there something about USGA course setups that suits your game? JEFF MAGGERT: Well, I think definitely this is what I would call the old style U.S. Open setup. The fairways might be a little more generous here in the Senior Open than they would be in a regular Open. Certainly, the rough is very penalizing. The golf course has got some long holes on it. Driving the ball, like I said earlier, has always been my strength over my career. Certainly, when you're playing in U.S. Open conditions, putting the ball on the fairways is usually a lot more important than hitting the ball a long way. Although the last few years, the game's kind of changed, obviously, on the regular Tour. The big hitters seem to have a lot bigger advantage, even on the U.S. Open courses. Maybe some of the courses they're playing are not as penalizing off the tee as they were in the past. It's good to play this type of course for me, obviously. Driving the ball on the fairway is a premium on this golf course, and hitting some good iron shots and just putting yourself on the green and having a chance to putt for birdie. Q. Between the heat and the tight leaderboard, how would you describe the conditions out there coming in? JEFF MAGGERT: Well, I wouldn't say the heat's bothered me the last few days, but it was warm. Obviously, growing up and playing most of my golf in Texas, and I have a summer house in South Carolina now. So the heat was something I'm used to playing in, but certainly yesterday afternoon it was pretty toasty. Coming in, the last nine was very warm. Staying hydrated and just trying to stay focused is a little bit of a challenge. There's not much shade on this course. There's a little bit of shade for some of the gallery areas, but tee to green, there's not a lot of shade. So it's kind of hard to find places to stay cool. Just drink a lot of water and try to stay in the fairway and out of the rough. Q. What do you make of this bunched leaderboard here going into the afternoon? JEFF MAGGERT: There's a lot of good players here. It's nice to see Mr. Watson playing well. Hopefully, he can keep up a good week here. There's a lot of good players on the Champions Tour that we play week in and week out. So the crowded leaderboard is not that big of a surprise. I expect it to thin out a little bit this afternoon and tomorrow. But the golf course is fair so good players are going to stay near the lead or stay right around par or under par. I don't feel like anyone can really run away with it on this golf course. The golf course is right there in front of you. It's very fair. There's no unfairness and luckiness about it. You've just got to come out and play well. The good players are showing that out here. Q. Was it easier to play during the morning, or was it tougher to play today? JEFF MAGGERT: Certainly, playing in the morning for the first two or three hours, the conditions were pretty nice. When we made the turn, it started to get a little bit warm. I don't know how hot it's going to get today. I know yesterday was triple digits. So teeing off at 2:00 in the afternoon, it was warm from start to finish. But the golf course has held up well. They've done a good job keeping it watered. They haven't over watered it, but they put just enough on it to keep the conditions pretty firm. It's not overly firm, but it's just playing the way it should be. THE MODERATOR: I'll follow up with one last question. You birdied 16 to 18 today. That string of five birdies, five consecutive birdies, actually, a U.S. Senior Open record. It's tied a record. But 16 and 18 playing very difficult yesterday. Seemed like they were playing easier today. JEFF MAGGERT: They had the tee up on 16 today. So driver, 8 iron today and a driver and a 4 iron yesterday. So a big change on the tee placement there. The pin placement today had a little bit of a backstop kind of behind it and to the right. I expect there's probably going to be quite a few birdies there. Not everybody's going to birdie it, but there will be probably more birdies there today than there were yesterday. THE MODERATOR: 5 under, 135. Jeff Maggert tied for the lead after 36 holes. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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